When He Met Her
by oh-violette
Summary: Jade West didn't used to be as bitter as she is. Beck Oliver watched her transform from who she used to be when he met her to who she is now. What caused the big change? AU. Eventual BADE.
1. Chapter 1

When He Met Her. A Bade Fanfiction.

**Summary**: When he first met her, she was the opposite of what she is now. What caused her big appearance change?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Victorious nor do I own the characters. This is a work of fanfiction, nothing more.

**Note**: Jade's going to see a little out of character for the first few chapters, because I'm showing how her personality and appearance have drastically changed from Middle School to High School. It's a little drawn out this chapter, but I promise, it gets better! Also, I have issues with tenses, but I'm trying to resolve them. As you'll find out, it's not working so well… ;)

•••

He met her in seventh grade. They were in the same English class - it was called Language Arts/Reading back then - and the seating chart put them right next to each other. His hair was shorter than it is now, but not by much. Her hair was much, much lighter than it is now, but that isn't saying much; any color is lighter than black.

It's the first day of seventh grade, right after lunch. He's in his desk, patiently waiting for the teacher to arrive. She's talking to a red-haired girl on the other side of the room. She catches his attention immediately. She's in two of his other classes already, but he has yet to catch her name.

He doesn't notice, but she glides over to the seat to his direct left, where her teacher-made name tag is sitting. She checks to see if any of her friends were placed in the seating chart near her, but to no avail. The only friend she has in this class is the velvet-cupcake-haired girl sitting three rows over. She checks out the people sitting next to her, not really taking anything in, but does a double-take when she sees him to her right.

"Hey, do I know you?" She asks, not trying to be rude, just trying to place where she's seen him before.

The question's so general; he doesn't know how to answer it. "I, uh… I'm Beck," he says, "we're in social studies and study hall together." He scratches the back of his head, nervous. She's pretty, with her one, purple, removable hair extension.

It clicks. She remembers seeing him now. "Jade," she says, letting her name slip right off her tongue. She sends him a friendly smile and memorizes his face for just a second before pulling a fresh notebook out of her bag.

The book bag she has is the same color purple as her hair extension, and it also matches the tunic she's wearing over black leggings. If Beck were to stereotype her right then and there, he'd say she's pretty girly. She's wearing nice, pretty make-up (almost a little too much, but they were in seventh grade, and the girls were experimenting) and her hair is curled to a point where he's not sure if it's natural or iron-made.

The bell rings as soon as their teacher walks through the door and Beck is momentarily focused on what she's writing on the board. _Introductions: 2 Random Truths, 1 Lie_.

"This is my favorite game!" The red-haired girl calls from across the room. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, so no one responds. Her voice is airy, he notices, almost singsongy.

"Oh, good, someone's heard of it," the teacher says excitedly from the front of the room. "I'm going to pair you up with a partner, and we're going to play Two Truths and a Lie, just so everyone can have a chance to get to know each other."

Beck had played a get-to-know-you game in his math class, but in no others.

The teacher - whose name was revealed to be Miss Page - walked around scissoring her fingers, signaling to her new students who was paired up with whom. When she came over between Beck and Jade, the two were paired together.

"Here's how the game works, for those of you who don't know: with your partner, you are going to first introduce yourselves - just your name will do - and then you're going to tell that person two truths about yourself and one lie." Sounds simple enough. "Your partner, after you've told them the three things, is going to guess which one is a lie." Sounds like fun, actually.

An obnoxious kid from the back of the room decided to ask what the significance of this game was.

"Just to have a little fun," Miss Page replied. She paused for a second to raise an eyebrow before continuing, "and my hidden motive is to make you all more comfortable with public speaking." He thinks it's sneaky, but smart.

Jade turns to him. "Well, we already know each other." She points to him, "Beck," then to herself, "Jade. Introductions done!"

He makes a checkmark in the air.

"Would you like to go first?" He asks, not wanting to seem rude by just starting.

"How chivalrous!" She says, half sarcastically. "Sure. All right." She pauses for a couple seconds to put her ideas in order. _Two truths_, she thinks, _one lie… What do I want this boy to know about me?_ She figures the game is an introduction in itself, as well as a boost to their communication skills. Because this is technically the first impression she'll leave on him, she wants to make it good. "Got it."

He nods, ready for her to begin.

"Okay," she starts, "one, this purple streak in my hair," she strokes it with two fingers, "is fake; two, I dream of being on Broadway; three, I love to paint."

He studies her, looking for any sings of lying. Not that he would've recognized them if he saw them. He wasn't Cal Lightman, after all. But he did catch the way her eyes lit up when she said Broadway, and he already figured the extension was fake. That left painting. There were no paint-stained clothes or shoes, and her backpack - which was still open from when she'd grabbed her notebook - didn't have any rogue brushes sticking out.

She waits for an answer, tilting her head when it takes too long. He doesn't notice, but he's staring at her lips, then her hair as it falls on her chin, then her eyes. And he sees that she's waiting. He readjusts his position in his seat. "Sorry," he blushes, "momentarily lost connection with earth." _Dork move, Beck. You seem _really_ cool, now._ "I don't think you love to paint."

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" Jade exclaims, not that it makes a difference because the volume level in the classroom was through the roof. She gives him some soft applause. He fakes a bow in his seat. "What gave it away?" She asks. "Was it because I put the two truths first, because I almos-"

"No paintbrushes," he cuts her off and points to her bag, "to start. And the fact that you only have one streak of purple says that you didn't dye it that color."

"What about the Broadway thing?"

"You have a bad poker face." She looks confused, so he elaborates. "When you said 'Broadway,' you had this look on your face… I can't describe it. It was almost… a vulnerability thing." _It was kind of beautiful_, he considers adding, but doesn't.

She nods slowly. The trust was, the Broadway thing was sort of her little secret. She was afraid that if anyone knew how much she fantasized being on those stages, they would make fun of her. It was her soft spot.

"My Turn?" She nods again. _Crap._ He hadn't thought of two truths or a lie. "Um… I went to elementary school in the state of California." Lie. "I like to act." Truth. "And this isn't my natural hair color." Lie. _Shit! Was that two lies and a truth?_ "Wai-"

Before he can explain that he screwed up the game, she says, "The natural hair color thing. Or maybe it's the California one. That was a little bit too specific to be true." She taps her chin for emphasis on how hard it is for her to decide which is the lie.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner?" He half-says, half-asks. Her eyebrows furrow. "I sort of effed up the game. I accidentally put in two lies and one truth. So… you were right. They were both wrong."

It takes her a second to process this, mostly because he explained his slip-up so quickly she could only catch a few words. "So you didn't go to school around here last year?" He shakes his head. "Cool." That's all she says. She doesn't ask about the acting.

There's an awkward silence before Miss Page breaks it by clapping her hands.

"Okay! Okay, everyone!" The conversations slowly, but surely, quiet, and Miss Page has the floor again. "I hope you all learned something about another person in the classroom," Beck looks over at Jade for just one second, "and if you didn't… well, then you're not going to like the second half of this exercise."

Miss Page explains that one by one, each student is going to introduce their partner, then tell a fact that they learned from the game. When it gets to Beck, he looks over to Jade. They make eye contact. She's got a puppy dog look on, almost as if she's pleading he won't spill the Broadway thing. He's not sure why, but he obeys. "Jade," he nods in her direction, "doesn't like to paint," he says simply, and looks over to her for approval.

Her face has softened.

When it gets to Jade, she teases, "Beck doesn't understand rules," under her breath, so only he can hear. He blushes, and nows his head just a little. She lightly elbows him, as if to say she's only playing with him.

"What was that, Jade?" Miss Page asks. She hadn't caught it. She wasn't supposed to have.

"This is Beck's first time in a California school!" Jade reveals proudly. The red-haired girl "oohs" from across the room. The exercise continues until the whole class has gone.

The bell rings, and everyone seems to simultaneously get up. Some people turn to their partners to politely say goodbye, others head straight for the door. Beck and Jade turn to each other at the same time.

"So…" He says. "What class do you have next?"

"Intro to Acting, you?"

"Intro to Acting."

•••

What'd you think? I know it was a slow intro and nothing's really happened yet, but I promise that chapter two is better. Please review! Criticism is absolutely welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

When He Met Her. A Bade Fanfiction.

**Summary**: When he first met her, she was the opposite of what she is now. What caused her big appearance change?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Victorious or Bridge to Terabithia, nor do I own the characters from either. This is a work of fanfiction, nothing more.

**Note**: This chapter goes much, much faster, just so you all know. And I'm still having trouble with those damned tenses!

•••

A month of school has passed, and, because half of their schedules match up, Beck and Jade become acquaintances. They each run with their own crowds, but during their classes, they find time to have quick conversations.

About two weeks into the school year, Jade introduces Beck to the red-haired girl, who is also in their acting class. Her name is Cat. He doesn't know what it's short for or if it's just a pet name - no pun intended - but then, she doesn't know what Beck is short for, either. She's eccentric, like Jade, but in her own respect. And she's easily offended. He learns this quickly.

The first week of October, they get their first book assignment in Language Arts/Reading. The book is _Bridge to Terabithia_, and they have until Halloween before they have to finish it. Miss Page gives them a schedule of checkpoints, so they'll know which chapter should be read by when, and the days on which there are chapter quizzes. She gives them the rest of the period to start reading.

•••

When class starts the next day, Beck is already halfway through the book.

Jade notices that his bookmark has travelled more pages than hers has and snatches Beck's book from his desk. "How far are you in this?" She asks. Before he can answer, she sees just how many pages he's passed. "Wow!"

He takes his book back.

They're silent for a minute.

"So have you noticed," Jade starts, "that Jess and Leslie are a lot like you and me?"

"I guess I never really thought of that," he pauses. She's used to him pausing by now, and she gives him time to gather his thoughts. "I could see it." But there were more differences than similarities. Jess and Leslie are best friends; Beck and Jade are just classroom buddies. But, there's their love for acting, and that sort of parallels Jess' and Leslie's love for running. Although, he's sort of figured that Jess and Leslie have feelings for each other. Did Jade see that, or was she speaking stricly platonic? "Yeah, it does make sense."

She nods, satisfied with his answer. "We should find a Terabithia," she says quietly, more too herself than to him.

"Hmm?"

"A Terabithia," she repeats, intentionally speaking up. "Like, a safe place or something? More like a hangout that anything."

He wrinkles his brow. "There aren't any cool forests around here, though."

"Well," she giggles, which causes him to blush a little bit. She doesn't notice. "It doesn't _have_ to be a forest. It could be… someone's basement, or a park, or just a bench. Just somewhere that you, me, and Cat could all hang out."

_Oh, so Cat's coming, too?_

Class is going to start soon. When this time comes around, they usually make their replies short and sweet. "Sounds cool."

She nods. After a few seconds, she says, "I'll work on it."

"Work on what?"

She giggles again. He stares at her smile. "Finding a Terabithia."

•••

By the end of the day, Cat has been informed of the plan and says she knows of the perfect spot. "There's, like, this ditch where I used to go dry-sledding in the wintertime with my brother, and it's so cool! I haven't been there since I was four, because my brother got really hurt one time. It's kind of abandoned now, sort of like this one haunted house my family went to. They don't think it was haunted, but I th–"

Jade cuts her off, knowing that she's divulged the most important information, and the rest is just a pointless story. "Let's go, then!"

There's a gate near the ditch, but it's nothing to sneeze at. It looks like a house's gate, just lacking the "Beware of Dog" sign.

"Come on!" Cat says eagerly, and pushes the door to the fence aside. She runs with her arms outstretched, as if she was in a commercial.

Beck turns to Jade. He's comfortable enough with her to playfully flirt, and she's comfortable enough to let him. "Madame?" He says, offering his elbow for her to take so they can walk into the ditch together.

"Oui, monsieur." She hooks her elbow in his, and they walk toward Cat, who has reached the outskirts of the ditch.

Cat reaches her arms to a Ta-da position. "What do you think?"

The ditch is deeper than it is wide, but not by much. If it were to rain, it would fill up pretty quickly, but it was roomy and better than anything Beck or Jade had to offer.

Jade nods her approval and Cat claps. "Yay!"

"So I say we come here every day after school. We should make this our safe place," Beck says, using the words _safe place_ just as Jade had in English class.

"Agreed." Jade says from his left. Cat repeats it.

The three of them sit down and just talk for a while, mostly about their Acting class, and the boring teacher they have for it.

All the while, Beck studies Jade and memorizes some of her mannerisms: the way she always pushes her hair out of her face right before she's ready to tell a story; how she checks for split ends when Cat goes off on a tangent when telling a story; how, whenever she cracks a joke that goes over Cat's head, Jade will wink at him, knowing he understood it.

As promised, they met the next day as well, and every day on through October. These daily visits became time for group work on homework, study sessions, and - on the rare occasion that no homework was assigned - card games.

They work on their final _Bridge to Terabithia_ take-home quiz together one day at the end of the month and, with extra time before they have to leave for dinner, Cat starts randomly interrogating Beck.

"So, Beck."

"So, Cat."

"Who do you like?" She blurts quickly, and earns a light slap on her arm from Jade. "Ow! It's just a question!"

Beck looks from Jade to Cat, but mostly to Jade. He has long since admitted to himself that he has a crush on her, but she is really good at hiding her feelings, because he has no idea how she feels about him. "Uh…" Around these two, he rarely found himself speechless anymore, but this question - to say the least - caught him off-guard.

"You're making him uncomfortable!" _Saved by the Jade_.

"No, I'm not," Cat said, sure of her words. "Am I, Beck?"

"Well, Cat, to be honest… Yeah, I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that question. I wish you hadn't asked it." He reaches behind his head to scratch his neck and avoids eye contact with Cat. This is when she usually loses it and gets offended.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, her catch phrase a mix of fury and hurt. "I don't see why it's such a big deal!" Cat started to stand up. "All I asked was who you liked, Beck."

"Well, Cat," He started softly, standing to meet her, "who do _you_ like."

She pressed her lips together. "I don't have to tell," she said, childishly shaking her head back and forth with each word.

Beck sighed and sat back down. Cat followed soon after, with an expression that said she'd forgotten why she was standing.

Every so often for weeks after that, Cat presses and presses for Beck to answer the question. At one point, she even slips, "But Jade told me who _she_ likes!" That didn't make much sense to Beck. Cat never asked Jade who she liked in front of him; he was the only one who got bombarded with questions.

"_Cat_," Jade scolds, and quickly looks at Beck to see if he's caught the slip.

Yeah, he's caught it.

"Okay," Jade sighs, "don't be mad, but sometimes Cat and I just come here by ourselves. Alone. On the weekends or when you're out sick from school. And we just… gossip." She shrugs, though still embarrassed that she even has to explain this. Cat shouldn't have slipped it. "It's boring girl stuff anyways. She asks me questions, I ask her questions…"

"So you have anti-Beck meetings?"

"No, no, no," Jade says, then laughs a little at how defensive he got. "Wow, uh, no. We don't just talking about you. We talk about everyone; even that André kid you're friends with." He nods. He hadn't missed it when she said _just talking about you_. Maybe he wasn't their only topic, but he was, without a doubt, _a_ topic of conversation. "But… Yeah, I mean, don't even worry about it." She waved it off, unconvincingly.

"Yeah," Cat says, trying to help, "we talk about you sometimes, but it's not, like, centered around you or anything. Although there was that one day when we centered the conversation around"–his ears perk up–"monkeys and how adorable they are." And back down they go. "Their paws are just so cute, don't you think? Or is that dogs that have paws… Why am I drawing a blank? Maybe it's because I hit my head this morning and…" Jade rolls her eyes, and she and Beck let Cat keep talking, but they drown her out.

The two of them just lay on the grass next to each other, staring up at the sky.

•••

It's the last week of seventh grade. Finals - or "finals" - are over for the middle schoolers, and on the last day of school, all of the classes are free-for-alls.

In Language Arts/Reading, Miss Page hands out jolly ranchers to everyone. Jade and Beck are sitting atop their desks, facing each other. Cat is talking to her partner from the first day of school on the other side of the room.

Jade leans forward so Beck can hear her over the crowd noise. "What are we going to do when school's over?" She was talking about The Ditch - their own, personal Terabithia. "How are we going to know when to meet?"

Beck leans in as well, and Jade's face is so close he could kiss her if he wanted to. He'd just have to lean in another inch and their lips would be locked. Her lips. He was staring again.

"Eaaarrthhh to Bee_eckkk_!" Jade said. She fluctuated her voice in such a way every time he zoned out to get his attention back. She knew where he was staring - most of the time her lips, but sometimes she catches him staring at her ass, too. Never once in the boobs, though. He's a little too afraid of getting caught to even dare. She knows he likes her - or, at least, that's the impression she's getting - but she likes to play the game of Chase. And she hasn't decided if she's ready to admit to anyone but Cat that she likes him, too.

"Sorry, The Ditch, right…" He crashes back to reality, and looks her in the eye. "I don't know, Jade, I think we can just play it by ear." He shrugs. "We _could_ set a time for every day, but really?" He shakes his head, deciding it's not a good idea. They were teenagers, and their sleep schedules were unpredictable. "But, I was thinking: maybe we could just all text each other when we wanted to hang at The Ditch?"

Jade blinks. This should have come to her, but it didn't. That actually makes perfect sense. "I don't have your number, though." She realizes that it's true. All of their plans were made during school hours, and their Ditch meetings took place right after school, so there was no confusion. Each member of the trio had a cell phone, but they never really used them for each other.

At the end of the last day of school, Jade and Cat exchange phone numbers with Beck, and they walk over to The Ditch.

•••

I have a bribe! Five reviews before I update. Chapter three is my favorite chapter yet, so it's worth it! Remember, criticism is _always_ welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

When He Met Her. A Bade Fanfiction.

**Summary**: When he first met her, she was the opposite of what she is now. What caused her big appearance change?

**Disclaimer**: I own neither Victorious nor Bridge to Terabithia, ergo I own none of the characters. This is a work of fanfiction, nothing more.

**Note**: _Wow_, thank you so much for all of the reviews! This is that chapter you've all been waiting for! It brings together the things from the first two chapters (AKA, shows you their significance) in more ways than one… This is where things begin to get T rated. Also, this is the chapter where things get more AU.

•••

Cat and Jade were more organized about meeting up than Beck was. Not that he knew, because most of the time when they were meeting, he wasn't invited. He'd become all right with that; he had guy friends to hang out with, Call of Duty games to play, and late night television shows to watch because his sleep schedule was so messed up.

The times when the trio met all together were once a week, usually on Saturdays around two or three in the afternoon. They'd stay there until at least eight, just talking or not talking, playing board games, and sometimes singing. Their friendship had gotten to the point where they just liked to be in each other's presence, and if there was no actual action going on sometimes, that was perfectly fine.

Beck's feelings for Jade only grew stronger, and he really treasured the Saturdays they spent together with Cat. In early August, there was a day when Cat couldn't make it to The Ditch and it was just Beck and Jade.

"Sorry I'm late. My mom asked me to fold my laundry, and I did it as fast as I could. Where's Cat?" Jade was sitting in their place alone, which was unusual, because Cat usually got there before either of them.

"She can't make it. She texted me a couple of minutes ago." Jade holds her phone up to him for evidence. She waves it back and forth as he tries to read it just to annoy him. He takes her phone, plops down next to her, and playfully sticks his tongue out at her. She sticks hers out right back at him.

"Wonder why she didn't send it to me, too?"

Jade shrugs.

They sit there for a moment, just in silence. By now, it's a comfortable silence. They don't need to say anything, and it doesn't feel awkward. For Jade, at least.

Beck's trying to come up with conversation starters; anything, just as long as it keeps Jade here with him. This is his chance.

"So, Leslie," he starts, calling her by her _Bridge to Terabithia _character name.

"So, Jess," she plays back.

"What have you been up to?"

As she goes into her week's shenanigans, he studies her - her entire body. He's been doing this for a while, where he'll ask her to tell a story, and she'll be glad to. He half-listens, but he mostly asks for a story because she doesn't make eye contact when she tells them, so his eyes are free to explore whatever they want: in this case, Jade's body.

She wears high-waisted jean shorts which, if anything, just make her long legs look a mile longer (not to mention emphasize her butt); a yellow ruffled tank top over a red bikini top (_wonder what that's for_); and yellow flat sandals. Her hair lacks an extension and curls today - which makes the purpose of the bikini top even more suspicious - and she's not wearing any makeup, but to Beck she still looks beautiful.

Now he's focusing on her face, namely the tan she's gotten since the Summer started. It was always sunny where they lived, but the tanning sun didn't come out until the Summer. She looks perfectly sun-kissed, but also looks as though if she gets more sun, she'll just freckle and burn. And yet here they sit, and semi-direct sunlight (The Ditch creates a pseudo-shadow).

His eyes move to her lips. She's still talking - something about going to a water park with her step-siblings - and her lips are moving in a beautiful way. He imagines - like he has so many times before - kissing them.

When she's done, he says, "That sounds like fun," and lays down.

"So how about you, best friend?" She says, laying down next to him.

"Hmm?" He turns to face her, and once again, her face is close enough to kiss.

She elbows him lightly. "What have _you_ been up to?"

"Oh, uh…" He looks up to the sky, "well, I've been chilling at home. Hanging with André. The usual."

"You say that every time we're here," Jade says, still looking at him. "What are you even doing with your summer? It sounds pretty boring to me." She tried to muster a shrug, but it came out awkward from her laying position.

"I don't know," Beck sassily replies, "I'm enjoying myself." He mimicked her inability to shrug, which earned him a hit from the back of her hand.

"I'm serious." She pauses for half a minute. "Why don't we go do something fun?"

"Right now?"

"Right now."

"Such as…?"

She sits up. "Such as getting ice cream, going swimming, eating nachos… I can go on."

"All right, all right," he agrees, mostly because he would love to see her in a swim suit.

They stand and she grabs his wrist, pulling him down the the ice cream store a block away.

"You don't have to grip me so tightly," he tells her. "I'm not going to abandon you."

She shushes him. He pulls her up onto his back and gives her a piggy-back ride.

They eat their ice cream and they share their nachos, and somewhere between the sugar rush and the warm cheese Beck asks something that's been on his mind for a while.

"Who do you like?"

She stops chewing for a second. "What?" She laughs, hot cheese muting some of the sound.

"Who," he speaks more slowly, "do you like?"

She blushes and asks, "Do you think you're Cat Valentine?"

"Don't answer my question with a question, Jade West!" He fake scolds.

"I plead the fifth!"

"Not fair!"

"It's totally fair!"

"You're dodging the question!"

"So?"

Beck starts laughing. The argument was so juvenile.

"What? What are you laughing at?"

When he calms down, Beck says, "Nothing. You're-You're just funny." And he smiles at her, just for her.

They don't break eye contact for a good thirty seconds before she starts feeling awkward and looks down at the nachos.

"What, Jade, what is it?" Beck asks after a few seconds. While they were looking at each other, she got that vulnerable, I-want-to-be-on-Broadway look in her eyes.

"Nuh… Nothing, Beck, don't even worry about it." He gets butterflies in his stomach whenever she says his name. It's the way she says it so carelessly, but so carefully. She could take and break his heart just by saying his name.

"Jade. It's me, come on." He takes her chin in his hand and lifts up her head so she's looking right at him again. She has tears in her eyes now. "Jade…"

"Don't. Please, just let go."

He doesn't. "Jade."

"I just. I like you, okay?" Jade's surprised to hear herself say it. She blinks hard and a tear falls out of her eye. "Please. Let go." Her voice is weak, and she's not sure if he can hear it. She removes his hand from her chin and runs back to The Ditch, leaving Beck both elated and dumbfounded.

She hates being vulnerable. It sets one up for disaster and frankly, she doesn't want disaster, especially not here. Not in their safe place.

The worst part isn't even that she feels vulnerable. It's that she _knows_ he likes her and he was trying to make a move and she almost doesn't want anything to come of it. It's setting herself up for disaster. It's why she's hid the feeling so long. Denying that she likes one of her best friends is the safe choice. There is no risk involved.

But now that it's out there in the open… What if their friendship is ruined? What if they try the whole dating thing and it doesn't work out? What if there's no spark when they kiss?

_Fuck._ Why did she do it?

"Jade! _Jade!_ Where are you?" Beck comes down the sidewalk towards The Ditch, but stops at an intersection and contemplates going down her street and checking her house first. "Leslie?" He whispers. He turns over to the direction of The Ditch and sees her hands sticking out above her head. It helps her breathe. "Jade!"

He's caught her. It's over.

Jade uncovers her face and blinks through where very few tears escaped. She hadn't been full out crying, but her face was undoubtedly tear-streaked. "Look, I-"

She's interrupted by his lips crashing into hers and their bodies melting together. He moves in to sit next to her in the ditch, and she kneels so she can reach his lips. He pulls her close, and runs his fingers over her cheeks, rubbing the tears' paths. She wraps her arms around his back. The two of them fit perfectly together.

And there was the spark.

•••

It's not long before Cat finds out about the make-out session that took place when she wasn't around. Her first reaction was, "I knew Jess had a thing for Leslie!" She never specified if she meant the real Jess and Leslie from the book or Beck and Jade's names for each other.

By the time eighth grade starts in the fall, the trio becomes known as Beck and Jade, and Cat. Beck and Jade weren't officially boyfriend and girlfriend yet; they were still giving their whole friendship transition a test-run. It was running smoothly so far.

Cat may seem a bit oblivious to everything going on around her, but she was very aware of what was happening to their Terabithia: it was breaking. She was going to be left alone by the best-friends-turned-couple of Beck and Jade. As much as she loved that her question of who Beck likes could finally be answered, it wasn't worth losing the awesome trio that they had.

"You two…" Cat starts, after a silence. Beck has his arm around Jade's shoulders, and they sit opposite Cat. "You guys aren't going to ditch me when you become a couple, are you?" Beck and Jade look at each other when Cat says _when_ you become a couple. "Because that would be so cruel, ditching me at The Ditch… Oh my gosh! I just got that! Getting ditched at The Ditch!" Then more quietly, "It's so mean…"

"Cat!" Jade says, getting her attention. She shrugs Beck off so her message can have greater significance. "How long have we been friends?" Rhetorical question. Cat, of course, starts to answer it, but Jade grabs her best friend's hands and continues. "Your friendship is so important to me. And no relationship with a guy is going to change that. Okay?" Cat nods, and for once stays quiet, checking for split ends.

"Jade!" Beck whispers quietly, then holds his heart as if her words just shot him. She rolls her eyes.

Jade looks up to the sky and sees dark clouds. "Looks like rain," she says, and starts to get up. "We'd better get going." Jade and Cat take the same street home, and Beck takes his route, stealing a kiss from Jade before he goes.

•••

Cat's home for a full hour before she realizes that her purse is missing. The storm is in full force; the largest of the past two years. But that purse has every essential in it: her wallet, her school ID, her cell phone, her iPod… Granted, most of the things were probably ruined, but that doesn't stop Cat from leaving the house in flip flops and a windbreaker to rescue her things. The wind is strong, but luckily, it's working for her. The wind pushes Cat down the street right towards The Ditch. There are no cars out (people in the Los Angeles area get spooked at any little amount of mother nature, so it's no surprise), but Cat can barely see in front of her.

The Ditch has flooded. Her purse is floating at the top, but it's too close to the middle of The Ditch for her to safely grab it. She tries anyway, and, with assistance from the wind, is pushed into the flooded Ditch. She grabs hold of her purse and tries to reach the surface, but it's no use. The wind keeps pushing her down. She keeps hitting the ground on all sides of The Ditch, and it hurts her body. The combination of the wind and the flooded rain water make her struggle much like a dark water slide - she doesn't know when her body will hit what. And when it does hit the side of The Ditch, it hits _hard_. Under the water, she screams out in pain when her head is hit.

No one can hear.

It's not long before Cat Valentine, eighth grade girl of thirteen years, has drowned.

•••

Be careful before assuming Cat's dead! She may have survived... Review, please!


	4. Chapter 4

When He Met Her. A Bade Fanfiction.

**Summary**: When he first met her, she was the opposite of what she is now. What caused her big appearance change?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Victorious or its characters. I don't own Bridge to Terabithia either, but I kind of wish I did.

**Note**: The results are in. Will Cat die or will she survive? I have a feeling I lost a great deal of fans because of that last chapter, and that's okay. But for those of you who stuck around, this chapter's for you. You get to see a little more of the Cat/Jade friendship. I hope you'll like it.

•••

She is in her room watching the _Bridge to Terabithia_ movie (the newer one) for the one-hundredth time when she hears the ambulance screaming down the street. She doesn't think anything of it at first because people on her block always get spooked whenever a big storm - a rarity in Los Angeles - hits the town. But the volume of the sirens drowns out her movie and Jade has no choice but to look out of her window to the ground below. There are two ambulances, actually, and a police car, and a firetruck. She begins to hear their cacophonous harmony as the ear-splitting alarms continue to shriek.

Then she notices where they're heading. Straight down the street to The Ditch.

She begins to panic. The Ditch floods easily; they knew that when they first hung out there that it would, and they even had to skip going to The Ditch a few times because of it. Even the smallest rain could cause a problem.

Did they leave the gate open? What if a little kid walked through it and fell into The Ditch and drowned right after they'd left the hangout spot? What if she or Beck or Cat could have saved him? She feels a pang of guilt, and immediately heads outside, cautiously running down the slippery sidewalk.

It doesn't occur to her to call Cat or Beck. Nor does it occur to her that one of them was the cause of the commotion. She just puts one foot in front of the other until she reaches the gates before The Ditch.

There's a crowd hanging about, mostly consisting of neighbors she's had small talk with at block parties. "What's going on?" She asks to no one in particular. They're all surrounding the hole in the ground that she, Beck, and Cat were at not a few hours ago, with just a big enough gap for the authorities and doctors to get through.

"Oh it's so horrible," she hears a woman to her right say. "Just tragic."

She politely pushes through the crowd and sees the edge of The Ditch. It's filled with water, and, she notices, the ground under her feet is dangerously damp. If she had chosen to wear flip flops, she without a doubt would have slipped.

"She was my neighbor," someone else says.

"Is there any chance they can save her?"

"Why haven't they gotten her out yet?"

Jade pushes through the last layer of people between her and clear vision of The Ditch. She involuntarily gasps when she sees the body of her best friend being carried out of the water. She blinks many times, sure that it's a trick of the eye, but the velvet cupcake hair is unmistakable, even when it's wet.

She covers her mouth, convinced that she's going to throw up any second. Her best friend's body is put onto a stretcher and wheeled into one of the ambulances. "_Cat_," it's barely a whisper. She hears doctors yelling, and, just before the ambulance doors close, she sees a doctor performing CPR. There's still hope.

_No, no, no. It's not happening. You fell asleep watching Bridge to Terabithia and Leslie just drowned and subconsciously you're connecting Cat to the story. You. Are. _Dreaming.

She tries blinking really hard, pinching herself, rubbing her eyes. Nothing works.

The ambulance is shrieking down the street, trying to get to the hospital as fast as it can. _The sound is a good sign,_ Jade tells herself. _It means Cat isn't dead._

So she starts moving her feet.

•••

_Cat is her best friend. Everything Jade knows about herself she has told in confidence to Cat at one time or another. And Cat has kept every secret. Although Jade appears confident and has the facade of not really hiding anything from anyone, there are things that only Cat knows about her. And vice versa._

_They've been best friends ever since Cat moved in down the street in first grade - inseparable, to say the least. They used to play with Barbies together, and watch movies, and play house, and have sleepovers. And during an awkward phase when Jade wanted to know what it was like to kiss someone, she and Cat had practiced. Nothing serious came out of it - not that either of them wanted anything to come out of it - and it became just another thing that kept them close._

_Jade had helped her dye her hair the red color it was the first time. They were at Walmart one day in sixth grade and Cat was staring at her split ends._

_"What if I dyed my hair a random color?" Cat had asked._

_"What, like blonde?" Jade wasn't sure what she meant. Cat was a brunette, and she had a nice hair color for her skin tone. She wouldn't look good as a blonde. Maybe as a redhead, but probably not a blonde._

_"No," Cat said, looking up at her best friend, "I mean like blue, or purple… or red! Oh my goodness, like a velvet cupcake!" Cat squealed a high-pitched noise, and started bouncing excitedly. She grabbed her best friend's wrist. It wasn't exactly the redhead color Jade was thinking of, but she didn't stop Cat from leading her to the dye aisle. "Do you think they have that color dye here?"_

_Not three hours later, Cat's hair was successfully dyed, and, despite all Jade's doubts, it didn't look bad. In fact, it brought out her eyes._

_"Cat Valentine, ow ow!" Jade said, and jokingly hit her friend with the red-stained towel Cat had borrowed when she'd waited for her hair to dry._

_Cat giggled. "I loved today."_

•••

She power walks past her house, across the street, and three doors down to the Valentine residence. She doesn't realize it, but she's panting. Hard.

After three frantic rings of the doorbell, Mrs. Valentine opens the door. "Oh, Jade," she says, surprised. Her voice is very soft and kind. "Cat isn't here right now. I actually thought she was wi–"

"Cat… is in… the hospital," Jade manages in between gulps of air. "She-she-she-she drowned, and-and-and the paramedics… the paramedics are trying to-t-t-to revive her. We… we have to get… to the hospital."

The only words Mrs. Valentine understands of that are, "Cat, hospital, she-she drown, paramedics, trying, hospital," but they're enough to make her grab her purse, unlock the car, let Jade into the passenger seat, and put the car into Drive.

•••

The correct term, as the doctor describes, for what Cat was suffering from at The Ditch is "Near Drowning." The difference between that and plain old drowning is the simple fact that she's survived. Obviously it's a good sign, but, the doctor explains, she _is_ unconscious (not in a coma, he specifies, but unconscious) and is being watched by several doctors. And not all Near Drowning cases end happily. Jade wishes he'd left that last part out.

"Can I visit her?" She asks - pleads, almost - after ten minutes of pacing in the waiting room by herself. Mrs. Valentine had immediately gone into the room her daughter was, but isn't allowed to stay there long. It's important that Cat is surrounded by only those who can assist her in regaining consciousness, and, unfortunately, a mother's love can't do much good at this point. Neither can a friend's. So the doctor shakes his head. Jade continues pacing.

Her phone buzzes, and she welcomes the distraction.

New Text Message from: **Beck/Jess** - What's up?

_Didn't you hear?_ She sends back.

New Text Message from: **Beck/Jess** - Hear what?

_I'm calling you. Pick up._

"What's going on?" Beck asks as soon as he picks up the phone.

"Cat," she replies, still pacing, "is in the hospital."

"She–what? Cat, as in, our Cat? The Cat I just saw a few hours ago?" He doesn't believe it.

"She went back to The Ditch after we left and–"

"–But it had to be flooded by that time?"

"Yeah. And she nearly drowned."

"Is she okay? Is she going to be okay?"

"I-I don't know. Maybe? The doctors aren't letting anyone but her mom see her right now, and they don't even want _her_ in there, so it's gotta be serious." Back and forth, back and forth.

"I'm coming over there." _Click_. The line is dead.

It isn't until now that she feels the tears coming, because it's finally hit her how bad the situation really is. The initial shock has worn off and all that's left is the emotion behind it. Her best friend is _in the hospital_, only a week into eighth grade. Not just in the hospital with a broken wrist or getting her appendix removed; Cat is in critical condition. And Jade has seen enough doctor shows to know that phrase doesn't always lead somewhere preferable.

Mrs. Valentine is removed from Cat's room before Beck arrives. She sits next to Jade, where she's saved a seat, and pats her hand. It's clear to Jade that Mrs. Valentine has been crying, and it's clear to Mrs. Valentine that Jade is about to.

Cat's mom takes Jade's closest hand in both of hers. "Jade," she says after a moment, "honey, you're like a daughter to me, you know that." Jade nods, a tear escapes. "You've been like a second daughter to me since you were really little." She pauses, swallows, then continues, her voice a bit higher than it was before. "And I want you to know that - heaven forbid - Cat doesn't make it, you know that she loved you very much."

That's where Jade loses it. The tears stream down, making their own little pathways on her cheeks. Her pseudo-mother gives her a hug and a shoulder to cry on, and when Jade calms down a bit, Mrs. Valentine wipes her tears. "There, there," she smiles, "I didn't mean to go and make you upset." It's times like these Jade is thankful she takes off her makeup after leaving The Ditch. If she hadn't, Mrs. Valentine would have mascara stains on the shoulder of her sweater.

Jade musters a smile. "How is she doing?"

Mrs. Valentine sighs. "Better than that doctor said she was, but not by much."

"She's not unconscious?" Jade asks hopefully.

"She's not doing _that_ well, sweetie," Mrs. Valentine starts rubbing Jade's back, "but they have her heart rate back to normal, and a lot of the water she swallowed has been coughed up, not that she's aware of it."

Jade nods. Mrs. Valentine excuses herself to call her husband.

There's a five minute gap between Mrs. Valentine leaving and Beck arriving where Jade is - unsafely - alone with her thoughts. She tries her best not to think about anything, but it's nearly impossible. She tries her hardest to focus homework and Beck and what high school she should go to, but everything she thinks of brings her back to Cat. The girl has been in her life so long that with any commonplace thought or object, Jade could trace it back to Cat.

•••

_A spoon, for example. Jade and Cat where at Boston Market one day in third grade, and instead of a plastic set of a fork, spoon, and knife, they were given a spork and a knife. Cat was confused by this; she'd never seen a spork before. Was it supposed to be used as a spoon or a fork?_

_"Hey, Jade, how do you think they make these? Do you think they had to put a spoon and a fork through surgery? What did they do to the parts they didn't use? Do they make foons out of them?"_

_"Cat, what is a foon?" Jade laughed. She sometimes loved it when Cat went off on tangents._

_"Oh, you know, sporks are spoons and forks, foons are forks and spoons!" Cat said, as if it was obvious._

_Jade shook her head, still laughing. Not laughing _at _her friend, but at the thought that this is what really goes through her head._

•••

After a few confused texts to his friend (girlfriend?), Beck finds his way over the the waiting room that Jade is in. Mrs. Valentine is still on the phone, and Jade has taken to pacing again.

When he shows up next to her, she's mumbling to herself and concentrating on the floor. "…she doesn't make it. What if my best friend is gone. What if she becomes a vegetable and her parents pull the plug. What if I had been with her? Why didn't she call me before she went back to The Ditch? How long was she in the water? Where are the doctors?"

He grabs her shoulders to stop her from moving, and she jumps from the contact. "Sorry I-I didn't mean to scare you."

She registers who it is. "Beck!" She quickly pulls him into a hug and buries her face in his chest. "Oh, it's so horrible." Her words match her neighbor's from earlier that day, not that he can hear them. They're swallowed up by his shirt. She pulls away for a second. "You're… all wet."

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's still pouring outside."

"Did you walk here?"

"No," he says, then wipes his face with his sleeve. "No, my mom would never let me go out in a storm like–" He stops himself, realizing he's involuntarily insulting his unconscious friend. "Sorry. I didn't mean–"

Jade shakes her head, "Don't be," and waves the comment off, but she caught the slip-up. And despite herself, more tears spring to her eyes.

There's a pause. "Do you want to tell me about it?" Beck ushers her over to the chairs to sit. "How is she doing?"

She shakes her head again. "I don't want to talk about it." She looks to her hands, sitting in her lap. "I-I need a distraction." A lump catches in her throat, and he can hear it as she speaks. "I don't want to think about her right now."

He doesn't want to see her cry, so he listens. But he doesn't know how, exactly, he can distract her. He tries to think of topics of conversation, but too many memories between the two of them also involve Cat. No topic is safe.

So instead of words, he reaches over to his left, wraps his arms around Jade, and lets her rest her head on his damp shoulder. Every so often she'll sniffle, and every so often he'll stroke her hair.

They sit like this for twenty minutes before Jade, exhausted from crying and pacing and _thinking_ about all the things that could go wrong, falls asleep, holding Beck's left hand in her right.

•••

I didn't particularly like this chapter (my writing in it; not that Cat's survived [because I love that part]), but please review and let me know what _you_ think. I promise the next chapter will have a lot more Cat in it.


	5. Chapter 5

When He Met Her. A Bade Fanfiction.

**Summary**: When he first met her, she was the opposite of what she is now. What caused her big appearance change?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Victorious or Bridge to Terabithia or any other commercial things mentioned in my story. If I did… well, you don't want to know what I'd do.

**Note**: Wow, you guys are incredible! The reviews I received on that last chapter… they brought warm butterflies to my stomach :3 Unfortunately I have to break my promise on this having "a lot more Cat." It definitely has Cat, but it's not her-centric. Just wanted to clear that up.

•••

She visits the hospital every single day after school. Every. Single. Day. The hospital becomes The New Ditch for her, and she stays there longer than she did at the original. Sometimes he comes with her, other times he can't.

Mr. and Mrs. Valentine have all but camped out in the hospital, mostly in the waiting room, but more recently in Cat's hospital room. The doctors say Cat's stable enough to wake up any time now, and the Valentines aren't going to miss that moment.

It hasn't happened yet. Jade wishes it just _would_ already. It's been a week since she's seen her best friend as a conscious human being, and, if she's being honest, she's been growing more and more impatient while waiting for her to wake up.

But she reminds herself that it's rude to think that, and that she might not wake up, and that she should be thankful that Cat hasn't died _yet_, and the guilt of everything - not being with her when she went to The Ditch alone, saving her best friend from nearly drowning, and not being thankful for every moment she took for granted - floods back.

Whenever the Valentines take a food break, Jade watches Cat. It sounds creepy, but she's really more _observing_. Even while unconscious, Cat primarily uses her diaphragm to breathe; not her lungs. Every once in a while, Jade will catch her taking a shallow breath, and just when it starts to get her hopes up, her best friend exhales and moves back to diaphragm breathing.

And more than just observing her friend, Jade will talk to her. The doctors told her that sometimes the patients can hear you talking to them in whatever world their subconscious has created. So Jade shares memories with Cat - happy ones, of course - and will usually ask her if she remembers, only to be reminded that her friend won't respond.

But they also told her that while unconscious, victims have to make it through stages to get back to the conscious state. They have to come to terms with whatever incident caused them to be unconscious in the first place - in lay man's terms, to get over the shock - and, in their own little world's way, _over_come it.

It's not long before she's doing her homework in the hospital, reading trashy magazines in the hospital, shopping online in the hospital, and tweeting four times a day that she is, in fact, _in the hospital_.

It's on a Wednesday when she accidentally clicks on iMovie on her laptop instead of Safari. Her eyes flood with images, stills, videos, captured moments of her, and not only her but _them_: her and Cat. Memories seized with a computer and the push of a button.

There's one in particular she sees that catches her eye almost immediately. It's rightfully, but juvenilely, titled _Hottest gurrrls in the 6th grade! Be jeal!_ as if anyone else - outside of the two of them - would ever lay eyes on the footage long enough to be jealous. She remembers naming the video, and the day it was shot, and that it was so unnecessary that they filmed it. But they did it anyway.

•••

_"So, what do you want to do?" Jade turned to her best friend._

_"Hmm… how about makeovers?" Cat's eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh, it would be so much fun! I could do your makeup, and you could do mine! Where are your products?"_

_Jade opened a drawer in her dresser revealing cover up, three different eye shadow palettes, four different color eye liners, and blush brushes. Cat let out a high-pitched squeal._

_"You have _so _much make-up! Why don't you ever wear it all?" Jade shrugged. "We should film this," the red-head suggested._

_Jade pulled out her laptop and started a video. "Okay, we're rolling!" They sat across from each other, but perpendicular to the computer so neither of them could see the screen, but the screen could see them._

_They did each other's makeup - Cat's involved a little more eye liner than she was used to, and Jades brought out her cheekbones._

_"Don't look in the mirror yet, I'm not done!" Jade commanded._

_"Ta-da!" She presented her best friend to the mirror, and walked over to it herself._

_"We look ah-mazing!" Cat said, then rushed over back to the computer screen. "Don't we?"_

_"We do!" Jade moved in next to her. "Picture time!" She pulled out a polaroid camera she'd bought off of eBay a few months ago. "Smile nicely!" _Click. _"Now, funny faces!" _Click. _"Duck faces!"_

_"Duck faces?"_

_"Yeah, like –" Jade pushed her lips outward. "–like a kiss, kind of." _Click.

_A few minutes later they stopped taking pictures and ended the video with a wave goodbye and laughter._

•••

Her eyes are wet. It's easy to just remember a moment, but to watch it on film and to see it take place exactly as it _did_… it's too much. "Do you remember that, Cat?"

Maybe if Jade plays the memories - maybe if she could just have Cat _listen_ to what she probably remembers, too - who knows? It might make the "stages" those doctors were trying to explain move more rapidly, and Cat could be back up and ready sooner.

It's worth a shot.

So she plays a video of them singing R.E.M.'s _Losing My Religion_ from fifth grade, a music video remake attempt they did of some Rihanna song at the beginning of the summer before seventh grade, a video of them telling a story where they were each only allowed to say every other word… the list went on.

Jade has begun to notice something about all these videos - the reason she'd forgotten they'd existed and hadn't shown them to Cat before today - they all happened before middle school, before seventh grade.

She doesn't think Beck is the reason that she and Cat don't make videos anymore. But she doesn't exactly rule him out as a contributing factor.

Maybe that's why Cat was so scared about "getting ditched at The Ditch" that one day. Maybe she'd noticed - when Jade clearly hadn't - that they were not hanging out alone as much as they used to. Maybe the awesome two-some they'd once been was almost gone forever, and the trio had taken its place. Jade had subconsciously been okay with this, mostly because she was reaping the greatest benefit: she got a new friend (boyfriend?) and had kept an old one.

Jade still didn't know why Cat had gone back to The Ditch that day when it had been pouring, and if their friendship disintegration - no matter how slight it had been (from best friends making videos nearly every week to just gossiping about boys in a ditch down the street) - was in any way a cause of Cat's near drowning, she probably would never forgive herself. "Oh, my God, Cat," Jade whispers, "I'm so sorry."

And her friend is still laying there in a hospital bed, breathing.

•••

She carries the guilt on her back through the next day of school. She doesn't let Beck wrap his arm around her in Acting I, nor does she sit even remotely close to her usual seat in that class. She manages to avoid him for most of the day, because at this point, she's convinced herself that the two of them together is leading - or maybe, _has_ led - to Cat's destruction.

But he corners her. She wishes he hadn't. It would have been better if he hadn't. She could've gone through the day just fine if he hadn't. But, he did.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." The words _I'm fine_ should be enough to set off that she's not.

"You don't seem it."

"My best friend's in the hospital. Sue me if I'm a little… distracted." Her voice is small. She doesn't want to talk to him because she feels guilt over being friends with him, but she does want to talk to him because he's _Beck_ and she likes him.

"Is she getting better?"

"No change." And so their little conversation ends.

During lunch, Jade goes to visit an old teacher. The teacher's have to sit in their classrooms and monitor their homeroom students while they eat - there's no such thing as a teacher's lounge here - so it's not hard to find her.

"Jade! What a pleasant surprise," Miss Page smiles up from her desk when Jade sits in a seat next to it. "How can I he–"

"Why _Bridge to Terabithia_?" She asks. "Why _that_ book? Why not _Where the Red Fern Grows_ or _Alice in Wonderland_? I don't have a dog, and I don't take pills… why did it have to be a book that was so _real_ and possible?"

Her seventh grade teacher is slightly taken aback by all of these questions. "Well, Jade, I think _Bridge to Terabithia_ had an undying message that everyone can relate to: people die every second, and if we don't seize the day - _carpe diem_ - and take advantage of every moment we have with someone, we may regret it later."

"But why _that_ book?" she presses on. "Why _couldn't_ it have been _Red Fern_? The dogs die in that one, not the human. It's just as poignant."

"You said it yourself, Jade. You don't have a dog. You would've been detached from that book, and it would've been unrelatable for you. But you _do _have friends. You have Cat and Beck, am I right?" She nods. "The whole message of the book is that you should treasure the time you have with your friends, because you can't guarantee there will always be a tomorrow with them."

"But it parallels my _life_." Her voice cracks. She hates that. "And that… it scares me, Miss Page, it honestly does."

"I don't know how you mean, Jade," Miss Page furrows her brow.

_She doesn't know._ Oh, God, Miss Page doesn't know that Cat is in the hospital. She thinks there should have been a teacher newsletter about it, but maybe only Cat's current teachers received e-mails about it.

"It's Cat," Jade tries to swallow the lump in her throat, but it backfires. Her eyes just water more. "She almost drowned last week. She's… um… she's unconscious."

"Oh, _Jade_," Miss Page realizes her faux pas. All the words she said, all the _carpe diem_ she just preached, everything she just told Jade must have sounded so–

Jade stands abruptly, and grabs her bag from beside her chair. "I have to go."

•••

She's in the hallway heading to the girl's bathroom to wipe her tears and clean her face when he corners her again. Not literally this time, but they're the only two in the hallway and contact is almost unavoidable.

It's not that she doesn't _want_ to see him - or maybe it is - but she just doesn't want to deal with anyone right now, and just wants to get back to the hospital to talk to Cat again.

"Leslie."

"Please don't call me that. Not right now."

"O_kay_; Jade."

"Yes?" She stops and stands where she is. He moves closer to her and sees her tears. He still doesn't want to see her cry.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'll be fine." She tries to push past him, tries to make it to the girl's bathroom, but he latches onto her wrist.

"You're not fine, Jade," he says gently. "Please, don't shut me out," he pleads.

"I'm not–trying to. It's just, it's so _hard_ to go in there and see her there everyday, just _laying_ there like she's sleeping." She moves to the wall and slides down until her butt reaches the floor. He follows her down. "And I try to talk to her, but she doesn't respond. She doesn't say a damned thing, Beck! And, and, and the doctors, they say that she just needs to work through a mind block, and then she'll probably wake up, but I _know_ Cat, and I know she can get off track." She begins to shake her head. And then, more quietly, as if she doesn't want to believe that the words she's saying might have meaning, as if she believes if she says them they'll inevitably come true: "What if she doesn't wake up?"

Beck moves his hand from her wrist into her right hand. "She won't." He laces his fingers through hers. It still surprises her how well their hands fit together. "I'm sure that if the doctors say that she's going to get better by you talking to her, then she will. Hell, she might even be awake right now and you don't even know it."

She shakes her head again. "I don't want to be too optimistic about this, Beck."

"Why not?"

"It's not safe to be."

"And why is that?"

"Don't you remember?" He furrows his brow. Maybe he doesn't remember. "Leslie dies in the end. And I'm not the Leslie of this story, Beck. I'm not the one who nearly drowned."

He doesn't know what to say to make it better. He's never seen her like this, and he just doesn't know what to say.

But she needs him to say something. She needs him to be her rock and tell her she's being irrational, and tell her that Cat will make it.

But he can't. And if he did, she wouldn't believe him.

•••

"So, Cat," Jade says to her unconscious friend, "I was going to bring my electric piano today, but I figured the doctors wouldn't like it if I did. So, I guess I'm going a Capella."

So, while holding her best friend's had in both of hers, Jade sang _Losing My Religion_ to her best friend, just as they had sung it in fifth grade.

She gets all the way to _I've said too much/I haven't said enough/I thought that I head you laughing/I thought that I heard you sign/I think I thought I saw you try_ before she stops. She can find Cat in _everything_, she knows this already. And she knew the song would remind her of Cat, but she didn't expect the lyrics to remind her of _this_ Cat, the one laying in the bed.

So for the rest of her visit, she stays silent.

•••

Before the end of the day on Friday, Jade is called to the secretary's office. Something about a phone call that sounded urgent. She never gets called to the office.

Her peers in her math class begin a chorus of _ooh_s as she leaves, as if she's in trouble.

She has a feeling she knows what this is. Cat is dead, and Mrs. Valentine wants to save Jade time by letting her know now instead of going all the way to the hospital after school. She doesn't want to hear it.

And so instead, she walks down the hallway as slowly as possible, takes an alternative - read: longer - route to the office, and when she does reach her destination, she stops and almost turns on her heel.

"Jade West? Is that you?" The secretary calls to her. She has a smoker's voice and sounds impatient. Spotted.

She walks into the office. It looks exactly as she expected it to, just missing the choke from _Matilda_. "Y-yeah, there was a, um, call for me?"

"The phone's right over there, sweetie." She cringes. _Sweetie_. Only Mrs. Valentine can call Jade "sweetie" without it sounding horrible and cold.

There's a phone on the secretary's desk and a phone on the other side of the room. For whatever reason, Jade was instructed to use the one further away from the desk. She was perfectly fine with this.

"Hello?"

"Jade?" It's Mrs. Valentine. Her heart sinks.

"Hi, Mrs. Valentine. Is… everything okay?"

"Yeah, honey, everything's fine here." She hears Mrs. Valentine sniffling on the other side of the telephone. That and the fact that she used the word "fine" are triggers. Something's not right. "Everything's actually better than fine. Cat's woken up!"

She almost drops the phone right then.

Jade finishes her conversation with Mrs. Valentine, and it takes every fiber of her being to not run over the hospital. Instead, she rushes over to Beck's study hall, waves him into the hallway, and kisses him.

She might still think that maybe the two of them are a cause of the whole ordeal, but at that moment, she doesn't care. His arms are wrapped around her, hers are on his shoulders, and she squeals, and she hugs him, and any minute a teacher is going to make them stop.

She doesn't care. She's elated and thankful and happy and… exhausted. But _she doesn't care_.

Because finally, after a week of sleepless nights and afternoons spent at the hospital, she can let herself collapse. And she does, right there, in Beck's arms.

•••

And again, I'm disappointed with my writing! I don't know where my muse is hiding, but wherever it is, I wish it would come back because most of this chapter felt sucky to me ): It was long, but the contents of it... I don't know, it seemed bland and drawn out. Maybe it's because I like writing from Beck's point of view better... hmm. But I liked the ending :3  
But it doesn't only matter what I think, and I still want to know what _you_ think. Honest opinions have been - and always will be - welcome. Let me have it!

Also - and this is important - I won't be here for most of the week. Monday and Tuesday are going to be hell, because I'm going back to school (kill me now!). On top of that, I'm leaving Thursday for TheaterFest (so excited, I can't even tell you), and I won't be back until Saturday/Sunday. I won't have any access to a computer (I'll have my iPod, but I don't know if I'll even have wifi to read your reviews in my e-mail box), so this may be the last chapter you see from me for a little while. I'm so sorry! But there are so many amazing fics out there, I'm sure you guys can find _something_ to read while I'm gone ;) Wow, that sounded cocky. I'm going to stop talking now haha :)


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